VIEWPOINTS — “What’s any great star’s lasting contribution? What’s Lucille Ball’s? I don’t know how to put answers like that into words. I suppose perhaps the thing she did the best and the most of was make people laugh.” —Rue McClanahan on her colleague, peer, and friend Bea Arthur [EW]

The world is a little bit sadder today due to the death of this wonderful and funny woman. I will always remember the first time I saw her, as a child, when she was appearing on Broadway in Mame with Angela Lanbury. I loved her then and as Maude and of course as the witty and charming Dorothy on the ‘Golden Girls’.